DOL announces AI workforce development program as part of White House AI Action Plan

Key Takeaways

On August 26, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released a training and employment guidance letter encouraging the use of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) funding to help youth and adult Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills. This directive comes from the America’s AI Action Plan, a national framework to guide AI infrastructure and federal policymaking, including workforce development and AI education initiatives.  

Read the guidance memo here

What should counties know?  

This guidance advises states and localities to use WIOA Title 1 Youth, Adult, and Dislocated Worker programs to help participants develop AI skills by providing AI literacy training, integrating AI learning into existing programs and creating AI skills development programs.  

WIOA is a vital funding source for workforce development that helps counties tackle and overcome challenges facing job seekers and employers and is the largest single source of federal funding for workforce development activities.  

What are the next steps? 

NACo supports fully and adequately funding the public workforce system, including digital literacy programming to advance workforce readiness, educational attainment, telehealth access and technological confidence.  NACo will continue to update counties on further developments to the White House AI Action Plan.